Priscilla in Istanbul

last night!

2009-07-15T15:03:00.000-07:00

I'm leaving Istanbul in 8 hours! Can't believe 2 and a half months just gone by! I just finished packing and I'm really tired now :(

Anyway, for these 3 days, I was moved from the office to a desk at the end of a hallway as a new staff joined the International Office. I wasn't too excited about the move, but it turned out that sitting by the end of a hallway of professors' offices can be really fun. The professors would talk to me as they passed my desk, and so I kind of know all the professors now. A pity I was only there for 3 days :(

The people at the International Office were really kind to have lunch at a restaurant to mark the end of my internship, and they got a cake as well. I thought it was a pretty sad farewell, as I have got to know the people at the International Office quite well.

And since it was my last day in Istanbul, I decided to go on a little tour. I took the bus, rode on the ferry, then got on a tram, and finally a funicular to get to Istiklal (my favorite place). I could have just took a bus and got there, but I thought it would be nice to ride on all possible transportation to get to my favorite place :) And that was the last thing I did in Istanbul. (wanted to watch Harry Potter! but I didn't want to risk missing the last bus home)

Well, hopefully I can get to come back to Istanbul or Turkey again. There are some places which I have not visited in Istanbul, as well as many cities outside of Istanbul. And of course, to see the people I know in Istanbul :)

I'm really glad to have been living/interning in Istanbul :)

P.S. I took some pictures, but it's late and I'm sleepy, so I'll post them when I get back to Ann Arbor :)

Last weekend!

2009-07-12T13:45:00.000-07:00

Can't believe my last weekend just zoomed past! I felt like I barely did anything :(

I wanted to visit Dolmabahce Palace on Saturday, but it was closed when I got there. It says it is opened till 5pm, but it was closed when I was there at 2.30pm. I have no idea why that happened. Hopefully I can visit it before I leave. Anyway, it is an European style palace built during the Ottoman empire.

I went to Taksim and Istiklal (my favorite place in Istanbul) after learning the palace was closed. There was a crowd around Taksim Square and it turned out that there was some kind of international event there.

From right to left: S. Korean flag, Malaysian flag, and another flag which I can't identify. People were dressed in their national costumes.
I walked over to Istiklal and ended up watching "Public Enemies" just to get away from the heat. And after walking aimlessly around Istiklal, my Saturday was over.

On Sunday, I actually visited a museum. This museum is situated in a obscure location, hidden among a residential area. If I were to visit on my own, I doubt I would find it. But I visited this museum with the director of the International Office from the university as she was trying to plan a tour for some visitors. Due to its location, there were few tourists there.

This museum was a church from the Byzantine days, converted into a mosque during the Ottoman empire, and finally into a museum after Turkey became a republic.

Inside the museum: well known for its well-preserved frescoes from the Byzantine days

It isn't a big museum, and I don't know much about Byzantine art, so it took me just 15 minutes to walk around and take photos. Other tourists there had telescopes and were staring intently at the ceiling.

Sitting in a cafe outside the museum and observing the other tourists around me

After the museum, I went to where the director lives. She gets amazing view of Istanbul from her garden.

She lives on a hill on the Asian side, so Asian side is in the foreground, while European side is in the background. I'm envious how people in Istanbul get such great views so easily :(

And then, my Sunday was over. 3 more days before I leave! :(

Last week!

2009-07-07T10:29:00.000-07:00

Haven't blogged in more than a week! And yes, I only have around 1 week left in Istanbul. I'm starting to feel sad that I have to leave Istanbul soon...but at the same time looking forward to seeing my friends again :)

Anyway, for the past week, I got to do some interesting work. I had another research to do for the whole week, but I also got to be a receptionist on Tuesday morning for a conference that was held at the university. I stood by the door, asking for the guests' name and hand them conference materials. Most of the guests were professors from American universities such as Michigan State and Emory. (But none from Michigan!!)

The office I am in

My table was filled with the conference materials that I was packing

Later in the week, I was also asked to help out in a class. The instructor had a meeting during one of a help session for his students, and I was to help conduct that help session. I was really worried and nervous, especially since I'm still a student myself and the instructor only taught me the material a day before the session. Luckily only 3 students turned up for that help session, so I didn't have to deal with a crowd :)

On the weekend, I was invited to have breakfast by the Bosphorus. It was quite a nice experience - having a Turkish breakfast with the river as the backdrop. But it was quite an expensive breakfast. There were 6 of us, and each of us paid 35 Turkish Liras (23 US dollars). Well, I guess that is the price for dining with a great view.

Turkish breakfast with Bosphorus in the background

Not quite sure what to do this week to fully utilize my time before I leave Istanbul. I probably will revisit some places that I like :)

one week gone by...

2009-06-28T13:21:00.000-07:00

So a week has gone by working in the university, and it felt really fast. All week, I was working on a research for a professor and I had it completed on Friday. I'm just waiting for the professor to let me know if she wants any addition or changes to what I did.

Throughout this week, the university had a program in which high school kids were introduced to college life. I was invited to join in their activities; which I did. I went to one session which had the high school kids competing in groups to build the tallest tower out of straws which could hold an egg. During that session, I got to meet some of the student volunteers working on the program.

As my host was in charged of the program, and he said he needed help on Saturday, I went to "work" on Saturday as well. My host had to prepare lunch for the kids, and so I became one of the kitchen helpers among the rest of the students volunteers. Well, I cut vegetables, but the bulk of the job was washing dishes....

Sunday was the last day of the program, and my host thought I should join in as well. I went to the program and I was glad I did. The high school students put on performances, and there was much emotions as the high school students said goodbye to the student volunteers. I got to meet more student volunteers, one of whom I remember clearly, for he majored in American literature because his high school literature teacher was beautiful :D Well, I thought it was a curious reason to base a decision on.

I also watched a movie on Saturday, and got to know an interesting practice in Turkey's cinema. Halfway into the movie, the movie will be stopped for 10 minutes. According to my host, he thinks the break is for people to use the bathroom or buy food. Sounds like a great idea to me if the movie is long.

Ok, so still no photos. I'm getting a little lazy in taking photos....

1st day at Özyeğin University

2009-06-22T09:41:00.000-07:00

First day of work and I feel like I did more than I ever did in my entire time at FIBA real estate.

I had to do research for a professor, and the amount of research I need to do will probably take me days to complete. Since it was my first day, I had to wait for a computer to be set up and arrange for transportation, so I didn't have much time to progress far on my work.

I also spent some time at the dentist. I have a bad tooth for some time now, as my friends in Newberry know very well, and so I asked the people in my office about dental services. One of them immediately got me an appointment today. I wasn't too sure what the dentist said though - I remember hearing the words "cut" and "extract". I really hope I heard wrongly. My host said she will go with me to the dentist tomorrow to find out what exactly he said.

Well, I will try to take some pictures and post them.

last day but new opportunity

2009-06-19T14:14:00.000-07:00

So today is my last day at FIBA real estate. It's a sudden decision and I know I have never mentioned anything about ending work there at all. But no, I'm not heading back to Ann Arbor yet. I am actually transferred to work for Özyeğin University from next week onwards. It happened just 2 days ago when I chatted with the coordinator of my internship. After the chat, the coordinator offered to have me at the university. Well, I felt bad just leaving FIBA so suddenly, but seeing that they don't have much work for me there, it might be good for me to try something new. And so I accepted it :)

Since it happened pretty suddenly, my supervisor had no idea this is my last day. I told him about it early in the morning, but he only got an official notice from the human resource department in the afternoon. I thought it was quite a sad last day actually - I didn't get to see many of the people I worked with as they were out at various different offices. But, I will still be in Istanbul and I can visit them again.

I'm looking forward to a new environment! :)

In the mountains!

2009-06-17T13:15:00.000-07:00

I'm back from Mersin! It took me forever to get there and return, so my stay there was really extremely short. In fact, I only had 1 full day there.

My friend and I started our trip at 9.30pm on Saturday night, but we only reached her home at 5pm on Sunday. We took a shuttle bus to the Grand Central of buses, took a bus for 14 hours before reaching Mersin, took a shuttle bus to another part of Mersin and finally another shuttle bus to her home. We were feeling so tired that we took a nap the moment we reached her house.

The final shuttle bus to her home

View from my friend's home (she lives in the mountains)

My friend told me that this is her summer home. She lives in the city area of Mersin, but during the summer, it gets too hot there, so her family will move to the cooler mountains.

The next day, we spent the morning going around the village in a car.

We also spent a lot of time making food and eating them.

Barbeque!
Lunch outside!
After the heavy lunch at 4pm, we went for a walk.

Feeding goats and cows :)Gathering flowers!

And spent the night watching tv and staring at stars. I saw a shooting star for the first time in my life too.

The next day, my friend and I left her house early. My bus ride is at 6pm, but I need to get to the city. We were in the city early, so we walked around and my friend also brought me around to meet her friends.

In a cafe by the Mediterranean sea

After that, I got on the shuttle bus which brought me to the bus back to Istanbul. The ride was shorter, but it still took around 12 hours. I only got home at 630am the next day. Tired but fun :)

Özyeğin University

2009-06-12T13:51:00.001-07:00

Another week just went by so fast! This week, I got to visit Özyeğin University.

A little background on Özyeğin University:

Özyeğin University is a private university founded by the same founder as FIBA group (I work in FIBA real estate, which is part of FIBA group). It is a private university that has only been operating for a year and currently has 200 students. When I visited on Thursday, there was hardly any students around as most of them have left for the holiday. Right now, the university is operating out of a building that was previously a bank while the actual campus is being built.

I was there chatting with the people in the International Office, which only has 3 staff right now. I've only met them briefly when I first came here, so it was great to have more time to know them as they played a part in getting me an internship at FIBA.

I spent the most time with the director of the International Office actually. She showed me around the school (which only took 15 minutes as the school is really small), took me to lunch and we even went to a mall together. I'm afraid I didn't take any pictures of the school, but I might have some later next week when I visit again. I was surprised the director was free to bring me around, and she is a surprisingly energetic lady :)

That is my update for this week at work! :) I'll be leaving Istanbul tonight - not back to Ann Arbor. I'm going with my friend to her home in Erdemli, south east of Turkey I believe. She told me we would be taking a bus for 15 hours...yes, it's a long ride. I'll update again once I'm back! Till then :)

Gülhane Parkı + Archaeology Museums + Basilica Cistern + Grand Bazaar

2009-06-06T12:59:00.000-07:00

Another week passed and nothing much had happened at work. Guess I would just talk about what I did today, like most of my previous posts :)

I had wanted to go to the Archaeology Museum when I went to Topkapı Palace last week, but after touring Aya Sofya the museum was closed. But though it was the first thing I wanted to do, I went to a park instead. Not that I wanted to visit a park; I went down a wrong path and ended up in the park. The park is known as Gülhane Parkı and was once Topkapı Palace's park. The park is really pretty though! There were flowers everywhere and lots of greenery. A good break from the crowd in the city!

It was quite lonely to be alone...especially since everyone else came with at least one other person...

Flowers arranged in the pattern of another flower (tulip?)

After a brief walk, I went to the Archaeology Museum. It is actually a huge museum, or I should say museums. There are three buildings that house the archaeological finds in Turkey.

Museum of the Ancient Orient

Tiled Pavilion

Archaeology Museum

There is so much to see at the museums. It took me 3 hours to view everything. I started the tour reading all the descriptions, but when I realized there was just too many artefacts, I skipped many descriptions and just look at the artifacts.

The museums have artefacts from

elaborate sarcophagi

to skeleton of ancient kings

to marble statues

to large amount of broken pottery

There are also some columns outside the museums...exposed to sun and rain.

I took a lunch break after the museum tour before heading over to the Basilica Cistern. It is a huge underground place which was used to store water for use in palaces originally. It was cold and dark in there, and I thought it was quite creepy.

Columns in the cistern

There isn't much to see in the cistern, except for the column supported by a block in the shape of the head of Medusa.

Apparently all the columns in the cistern were taken from ruined buildings when it was built in year 532.

Since it was still early to return home, I decided to walk over to the Grand Bazaar. It's a place that has many shops where people can bargain for the goods they want.

Entrance to Grand Bazaar

It was very crowded with tourists. I had planned to take a tour around the bazaar to see what the shops were selling, but ended up getting stuck in a shop for sometime. I thought it was time to return home and so I didn't get to see much of the bazaar.

Topkapı + Aya Sofya

2009-05-31T12:59:00.000-07:00

Today I decided to do what every tourist should do: visit Topkapı palace and Aya Sofya.

I thought I was early, but there were already crowds outside Topkapı palace.

Outside the entrance to the palace (no need to have tickets to enter here)

After walking through a huge garden.....I arrived at the 2nd gate.

2nd gate (need to have tickets and have to go through security checks before entering)
And after walking through another smaller but still huge garden...I come to the 3rd gate.

3rd gate
After the 3rd gate, I finally got to the 3rd court where exhibits such as jewels, swords and Prophet Mohammed's footprint in clay, etc are.

But, long lines were outside every exhibition halls....

It took me a long time to visit all the halls (there were about 5 halls).

And I toured Harem as well. Another ticket has to be bought to tour Harem, despite that the it is in the palace and visitors already paid to tour the palace .

A passage in the Harem; more specifically, the Eunuch's dormitory section of the Harem.

Model of women in the Harem

After the palace, I went to Aya Sofya. It was initially built as a church, but was later changed into a mosque.

Before entering the mosque, a boy came up to me and pointed at his camera. I thought he was asking me to help him take a picture of him and his friends, so of course I agreed. But it turned out that he wanted to take a photo with me. Soon, I was taking photos with every single one of his friends (about 6 of them I think). Guess they hardly see any east Asian looking people, and since I was alone, I was probably easy to approach...

Anyway, my camera can't take good pictures in dimly lit places...and Aya Sofya is dimly lit, so I'm not going to post many pictures of the mosque here.

Got this from wiki - exterior of Aya Sofya

I took this picture - maintenance work inside

But if my camera is better and if there is no maintenance work, the inside should look like this (from wiki):

The sign says this marble jar is from the Hellenistic age. Seems to be in pretty good shape for something so old...

After leaving Aya Sofya, I did something really dangerous. An old man came to me and started talking to me. I shouldn't be talking to strangers, but I did. He then invited me to his store which sells carpets. Silly me decided that since he was so friendly, I could go take a look. Turned out that his store was in a quiet alley...and I got scared. But I still went with him. In the store, he showed me many carpets and explained each carpet to me. Well, it was obvious he wanted me to buy the carpets, but I am not interested in carpets. He kept saying he had a good price for the carpets, so I randomly asked the price of a carpet, the size of which would probably just fit under my desk in my dorm., and it cost 120 Euros! Seriously, I think he must be out of his mind to think I can afford that. I told him I am really broke and there is no way I can buy any. He said it was ok because he is my friend. He gave me his business card and said I can look for him anytime.

Well...glad nothing happened, but I should really ignore strangers from now on.

Boğaziçi University

2009-05-30T12:57:00.000-07:00

Yesterday after work, I had arranged to meet my friend at her school - Boğaziçi University. She gave me directions to the bus stop, told me the buses I can take and where to get off. Unfortunately, I couldn't find the bus stop; not even after checking the location of the bus stop on google map. Well, Istanbul has one problem - streets are very difficult to find. Some streets do not have signs, so even if you know what street you have to be on, it will usually be hard to find. So I approached a lady to ask her about the bus stop. She couldn't understand English, but she seemed very willing to help me. So I wrote Boğaziçi University and the numbers of the buses. She understood what I wanted and called her friend for help. Her friend was extremely kind - he drove both of us to a bus stop. The lady got off the car with me and went with me to the bus stop. At the bus stop, she asked around for help, and there were 2 girls who were going to the university as well. After that, the lady shook my hand and left. The 2 girls were with 2 other girls, and all of them were really friendly too. They tried to chat with me by asking me many questions and telling me about themselves. With all the help of these very friendly and helpful people, I managed to reach Boğaziçi safely and on time :) This experience has proved once again that the people are really very nice :)

My friend brought along other friends, and all of us went to dinner at a restaurant near the school. After dinner, we went back to the school and sat in a cafeteria drinking tea, chatting and playing Taboo. Yes, Taboo was in Turkish, but they were so nice that they decided to play it in English. It was so amusing playing Taboo with them that I soon realized it was probably too late to catch a bus back. Since my friend had room for me in her room, I decided to stay the night in her room.

This is the kind of view they get in their school (the river is the Bosphorus or Boğaziçi in Turkish)

Main campus - my friend's dorm is the building in the center

My friend's room - this is a four person room; small but the ceiling is high.
Guess what's the view outside the window?
Answer: The Bosphorus, except blocked by trees.

This morning, I spent my time sitting on a lawn having lunch with friends. After lunch, my friend and I went to Istiklal. We were walking leisurely, eating dondurma and doing a little shopping. When we were about to leave, we noticed some sort of festival in Taksim square (Taksim Square is an open space at the start of Istiklal). It turned out that they were having a bazaar for hand made goods from eastern Turkey.

There were also performances at the bazaar!

work...

2009-05-28T04:31:00.001-07:00

I haven't blogged in the past few days because there really isn't much to talk about work. But I think I should at least write a little about work especially since this is supposed to be a blog about my internship afterall :)

Anyway, work isn't getting much better - that means I'm still not getting a good amount of work to keep me busy. My supervisor gives me work as much as he can, but it isn't a lot. I really like how he is very nice about giving me work though. The work might be as simple as entering numbers on Excel spreadsheet, but he will explain in great detail how to do it, tell me why he needs it and so on. After I'm done with the work, he will thank me and tell me I really helped him a lot.

Anyone has any suggestions how I can get more work? I've been asking whether there is anything for me to do...maybe there is a better way to ask this question?

new template + tag board

2009-05-25T03:26:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone! With help from a great friend, Siu Chu, my blog is now looking different and hopefully more interesting :) After using this template, I realized the comments are missing...my bad, I should have got one that still has comment. Well, instead of comments, you can click on message, and then leave a message on the tag board. Hope this will work as good as comments :)

I'll respond to some comments here!

Zhen Zhen: Yes, I know who Shirleen is :) Hmm...mantı...it is like dumplings; meat wrapped in flour.

Jen Jen: I didn't expect it to be an uphill walk...guidebook wasn't too accurate :D Well, I still need to exercise to stay healthy :) haha...Twining has the best view in winter...beautiful snow covered ground :)

princes' islands

2009-05-24T11:17:00.000-07:00

Today, I went out with my housemates to the Princes' Islands. I was really curious about the islands as someone told me these islands are the same as the Greek islands. Since I've never been to Greece, it sounds like fun to be in Istanbul and yet get to experience a little of Greece.

It is pretty convenient to visit the islands as there are ferry routes connecting a few places on mainland Istanbul to 4 of the Princes' Islands. We took a ferry and got off at Kınalıada, the first island on the route.

1st island: Kınalıada

On Kınalıada

My housemates sat by the beach while I walked around. After 15 minutes, I decided that Kınalıada was too boring. I checked my Lonely Planet guidebook, and after reading the descriptions on the Princes' Islands, it seems to me that the description of one of the islands, Büyükada, is the most interesting. My housemates didn't want to leave, so I went to Büyükada on my own.

I got brief views of the other islands as well, as Büyükada is the last island on the route.

2nd island: Burgazada

3rd island: Haybeliada

4th island: Büyükada

Main shopping and eating area on Büyükada

I decided to follow the guidebook's advice and visit the Greek Monastery of St George. The guidebook says it will take at least 1 hour to reach monastery by walking. I could have rented a bike or rode a horse carriage, but at that time I believed I needed a workout.

So I went along the road, passing by many impressive houses with beautiful gardens.

One of the many houses/villas

The 1 hour uphill walk proved to be a very tough walk that definitely worked my leg muscles well.

And at the end, I saw the monastery that I walked so hard and long for.

According to Lonely Planet, the monastery isn't the main reason to walk up the hill. The view from the top of the hill should be the real motivation.

Great views from the hill

I walked a little down the hill, but after that, I decided that I was too tired to walk all the way back. So, I rode a horse carriage back :)

On the carriage

While on the ride back, it dawned on me that I forgot to check the ferry schedule. Luck was not on my side though, I had to take a ferry that brought me to a different place on mainland Istanbul. Since it was already 845pm, I just got into a taxi to get home.

After a day of fun and workout, I realized I have not talked about work at all this week. I'll probably update about what I've been doing at work soon :)

bad start, great end

2009-05-23T11:56:00.000-07:00

Today, I was invited to a Turkish friend's aunt's home. I got to know this great friend in Michigan when she went to Michigan for a study abroad program.

But, I had a very bad start. I took a bus in the wrong direction, but fortunately got help from a guy who helped me back to the place I started. Then, I headed to the wrong place which I believed I was supposed to meet my friend, tried to find a public phone to call my friend but didn't have a phone card to use it, went to office in desperation so that I could use the phone, found out that I need a code to dial numbers out of the office, tried to explain to security guards that I just needed to use a phone (in hopes that they would let me use their phones) but was sent back into the office. Luckily, my troubles ended when one of the staff who serves çay happened to be in the office, and after some miming, he managed to help me call my friend. I then took a train to meet my friend....and I was late for an hour :( I felt really bad because my friend brought along her other friends as well, so a total of 6 people waited an hour for me.

Horrible start aside, I had a great time after that :) My friend's aunt prepared materials for us to make mantı (kind of like ravioli but Turkish style).

Here we are, sitting in the living room making mantı. Four of them are German exchange students studying in my friend's university.

I didn't take a picture of us eating, because my friend took a picture and I was too busy eating :) After the meal, we had dessert.

Dessert was "chicken breast,"which no one knows why it's named as such. Çay was of course present.

While we chatted over chicken breast and çay, I unconsciously drank 3 cups of çay and felt the effects coffee would have on me.

Before we left, our kind host even gave us each a gift that she made herself.

I think it's meant to be used during showers, but I should check again.

I definitely had a great time, though it would be better without those problems at the start :) It was amazing that people were willing to help me; the person who missed his bus to help me get on the right bus and the other person who made an effort to understand my miming. I must also mention that while on a bus, I saw 5 people got up from their seats to help an old lady, who had difficulty walking, into a seat. Aren't Turkish people friendly and nice? :) And of course, my friend and her friends are very nice to have waited for me for an hour without complaining :)

Istiklal + Istanbul Modern

2009-05-19T10:07:00.000-07:00

Before I officially start this post, I must first give more details. I live in the apartment with two other girls who are from UMich as well. And we would usually go out together on weekends. I also have a host who brought us around for the 1st weekend.

But today, I went out all by myself!:) One of the girls still had to work. I could have gone out with the other girl, but it was already 10am and she was still not up. I stayed home all Sunday watching shows, and got really bored. Since today is a public holiday (according to wiki, it's a holiday to commemorate the beginning of national liberation movement), I decided that I must go out!

The first place I went to was Istiklal Caddesi. I had already went there twice, but both times I didn't get to walk around leisurely. Actually, the main reason I went there was to get lunch :) As most of you already know, I can't cook, so I was really looking forward to lunch and dessert there.

Istiklal is a street with many stores on both sides and trams in the middle.
It took me a long time to reach Istiklal. I took a bus for 20 minutes to the jetty, waited 20 minutes for the ferry, took the ferry for 25 minutes, and then walk for almost 30 minutes before I reached Istiklal. By the time I got there, I was starving!!

I don't really know the name of the food I ate. The restaurant had all the food on display, and so I pointed out what I wanted.

Inside the restaurant. (I realized restaurants in Istiklal tend to have elaborate wallpapers)
After lunch, I walked down Istiklal, observing the stores. There are usual stores such as Adidas, Nike, Levis, etc. There's also 2 Starbucks. After walking down the entire street, I decided to get dessert! I went to Mado (my host recommended it) and got myself dondurma, also known as Turkish ice cream.

My cherry and vanilla dondurma! Cherry was too sour for me :( but vanilla was great! :)

Actually, I already had dondurma last week, but I forgot to take a picture... I got dondurma from another store on Istiklal, where the people who served dondurma wore traditional costumes and they will try to trick you before finally giving you the ice cream. Dondurma is kind of strange; it is sticky and doesn't seem to melt.

Since I still had time, I decided to visit Istanbul Museum for Modern Art. I walked for 30 minutes before I got there...

The museum has interesting art, but I couldn't take any pictures inside. So I got this picture online...the inside looks something like this...
My host suggested that I should go to one of the many nargile (hookah) cafes beside the museum. I couldn't imagine myself smoking...so I decided to head back home :)

While heading back to the jetty, I noticed these creepy looking buildings...

It took me forever to get home....and I'm aching all over now...but it was great fun exploring on my own :)

Beçeşehir

2009-05-14T03:20:00.000-07:00

I realize I haven't said much about what I did. Honestly, I feel like I haven't done much. For the first week, which was last week, I worked in the Project Development department of FIBA Gayrimenkul. All I remember doing was reading industry reports, updating those industry reports and reading the company's report. This week wasn't much more productive. My supervisor said he was preparing some data so that I could compile another set of data, but he never gave me that work. I ended up reading tons of old newspapers and updated myself on past current events.

But today, my supervisor was not around. I found myself having another supervisor from the Investment department in the same company. My new supervisor brought me to Beçeşehir, which is around 30 minutes drive from the office. According to him, Beçeşehir is where the richest people in İstanbul lives. Well, there are many apartment complexes as well as houses. There's also more trees everywhere. The company has two apartment complexes in Beçeşehir, and we went to one of them which has an office. Unfortunately for me, there was nothing for me to do. My supervisor saw me reading newspaper and he said that I should read in the garden outside as the the air is fresher. He is a really nice person, but I would prefer that he give me some work....and he kind of did. He passed me a printout, saying it was my work for the day. That printout turned out to be an email about what I should do if I receive a virus called Weekly Overload Recreational Killer (WORK) from my boss. According to the email, if I receive WORK, I should get Work Isolating Neutralizer Extract (WINE) and Bothersome Employer Elimination Rebooter (BEER). He is a funny guy, isn't he?

And as usual, I took some photos :)

This is one room in the office. I believe the office was really an apartment, but they made it into an office. That radiator made me miss Newberry (my dorm) and all my friends in Newberry :)

My desk.

View outside the window of the room/office.

Hope I get some work to do tomorrow!!! :)

Asya ve Avrupa

2009-05-11T00:19:00.000-07:00

Hi Everyone! Thanks for all your encouraging comments :) I don't really know how to blog...so I try to put as many pictures as possible to make it interesting :)

I decided to write a little post about Istanbul, particularly about the idea of Asian and European sides. The title of this post, in Türkçe, is translated as "Asia and Europe." Honestly, I know almost nothing about Istanbul, so when I was told there are Asian and European sides, I got really confused. Right now, my understanding of it is geographical. Anyone who knows more about this, feel free to comment! :)

Below is a map of Europe. Turkey is located in the bottom right corner. The blue circle is where Istanbul is :)

And this is a close up of Istanbul.

There is a river, Bosphorus, that separates Istanbul into 2 parts. That is where the Asian and European sides come in. The right side is the Asian side, and the left is the European side. The reason is simply because the right is attached to Asia while the left is attached to Europe. The Asian side is mostly residential, while the European side has the office buildings. I'm not sure of all the modes of transportation available to cross Bosphorus, but my favorite is the ferry! People take the ferries as though they are just buses. Since coming here, I've only taken the ferry twice. I'll probably ride the ferry more often as the view from the ferry is amazing :)

Some views from the ferry!!

Somehow I got distracted by trash in the river....but I heard it used to be worse.

Imagine taking a ferry to work/school everyday...and crossing two continents in the process...sounds exciting???

Göztepe Soyak

2009-05-10T01:17:00.000-07:00

Friends have been curious about how the apartment looks like...so I'm posting photos of my apartment! :)

Outside of the apartment (I took this from the window in my room)

Living room

Kitchen

Hallway in the apartment - 1 toilet and 1 bathroom to the left, 1 room at the end, and 1 room to the right.

And finally....my room :)

The apartment is located in Üsküdar, which is on the asian side of Istanbul. And Göztepe Soyak is the exact location in Üsküdar. There is a supermarket nearby which I get my groceries from. There is also a mosque close by, which has become a part of my life here - Before I go to bed, I hear the prayer call, and around 430am, I wake up to the prayer call. And, there is a fitness center among the apartment complex that I will be blogging about soon (my housemates can't stop laughing at my experience at the fitness center).

FIBA Gayrimenkul

2009-05-09T01:58:00.000-07:00

Just wanted to share how the office looks like :)

Project development department of FIBA Gayrimenkul

My desk

Below are some views from the office - the area the office is in is Levent, a business district in Istanbul:

Çay

2009-05-08T06:49:00.000-07:00

I forgot to mention that I thought it is really interesting that the company employs people to serve other employees çay, which is Turkish tea. This tea is served in a little glass cup on a saucer, and there are usually two cubes of sugar on the saucer for the person who will be drinking it to add into the tea. The tea is very concentrated, so I usually add both cubes into my tea.

(I didn't take this picture)

Other types of tea and coffee are also available, but çay is the most popular - a lady sitting diagonally across me drinks more than 5 cups of çay a day. But, the more interesting aspect is that people are employed to serve drinks. I'm not sure if other Turkish companies does this, but this is definitely something I'm unfamiliar with.

a little lunch time adventure

2009-05-08T04:48:00.000-07:00

Today, my supervisor had a meeting during lunch time, so I had to get lunch on my own. It was pretty daunting to get lunch, since I can't speak a word of Turkish. Nevertheless, I was pretty excited to walk around on my own :)

Since my supervisor wasn't with me today, I decided to eat something that I had in America.

And....I decided to eat BURRITO!! The person who took my order couldn't speak English, but luckily one customer did, and he helped me to place my order.

This is how the burrito meal looks like!

They weren't wrapped on both ends and had a lot of onions in them.

Well, it definitely didn't taste like any of the burritos I had in America. It was interesting to get to eat a burrito in Istanbul, but I think I would stick to eating Turkish food from now on :)

4th day!

2009-05-06T05:11:00.000-07:00

I've been in Istanbul for 4 days now, but this is my first post. So far, I haven't seen much of the city - I've only been to Kadikoy and the malls around where I work.

My daily schedule is pretty much the same: I take a shuttle bus at 7.25am. Work starts at 9am, but the bus picks me up early as I'm living on the asian side and I need to cross the Bosphorus to reach the european side for work. The heavy traffic is also a problem. But, I usually reach the office at 815am. Lunch is around 1230pm, and work ends at 6pm. After work, I take the shuttle bus back to the apartment.

Some pictures I took in the shuttle bus:

The bridge connecting the asian and european sides.

The heavy traffic :(

The company I'm working for is FİBA Gayrimenkul (FIBA real estate), which is part of FIBA group. FIBA real estate mainly plans properties to develop for FIBA. On the 1st day of work, my supervisor gave me a schedule of work I will do during the entire internship. This first week is introduction week, which seems to be reading about the company and the industry. I was done reading pretty early in the week, but they didn't have anything else for me to do. The department had a couple of meetings throughout the week, so they were all busy with their work and didn't have time to prepare work for me. They were all very friendly and constantly asked whether I felt bored. One lady gave me a stack of newspapers to read :)